Finally Friday!!

Heello there, hoping all is well with everyone.  It's been quite some time since I've posted, way beyond past due.....so here ya go.  I'm so glad it's finally Friday, unfortunately we have nothing planned for this glorious Friday night.  Maybe thats a good thing?! Here's a look (w/ my new little point & shoot) at what we've been doing.....

Isiah, my youngest son who turns 15 tomorrow, Happy Birthday kid, love you!! Can you tell how SUPER excited he is?! LOL, that's just Isiah being Isiah.

My husband and I were on the back deck enjoying an evening cocktail and the tranquil sounds of our pond while our dogs patrolled the place!! Gotta love the dogs : )

 Oh, and a quick lookie lou at a couple of flowers that have made it this far into the season, you see, I have a very brown thumb, sooooo I'm proud that these pretty babies are still alive!!

so the question of the hour is "do I love my new camera?"  At this point I'm still undecided, just can't tell if I will keep it or take it back.  I got the Nikon coolpix S4100, anybody else have one, and if so do you love it?  So my friend, I will try to stay in touch better but I just can't promise anything, haha!! No seriously, I'm finishing up a couple of projects this weekend and will be sure to fill you in next week.  There, I've posted it, so I will have to follow through with a post next week, tell then take care of yourselves!

~Renee~



Handmade Gift Exchange

So I signed up for a handmade gift exchange back in June.  Found out about it thru a friend.  You can read about it here.

I received an email on who my partner was and where she lived.  We contacted eachother via email, and got to know a little about eachother.  To my amazement we had a lot of things in common, but the most thing in common that we had, was we both like to travel.  Though my travels these days now that I'm married with 3 kids are limited, we still manage to take our yearly vacation to the Oregon Coast. My husband and I have been visiting the Oregon Coast since our first born was about 18 months, he is now 8.  Though we may not have gone every year, we did go an aweful lot.  For the past 4 years now we have been going to Lincoln City, Oregon.  We absoluty love it there.  Anyway, let me get back on track......

So for our gift exchange, Shawna likes to travel and loves all things water!  So this is what I made her, the 1st go around.  After I realized the little star fish were not going to mail well, a couple of the little arms broke off when I wrapped them in bubble wrap.  Darn it!

Picture is of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean

So, since that didn't work I needed to do something else, however.... I liked what I made, so I decided to replace the star fish with sea shells and change it up just a little.  This is what I ended up sending her.

I did add the sunset picture and sent that with the frames

Anywho, I thought it turned out pretty cute, I just kept the broken one for myself.

So being that my family travels to Lincoln City, she made me this wonderful memory book.  We just happen to be going to Lincoln City in August.  Can't wait to add my photos!  Thanks Shawna for putting so much time and thought in this project.

I loved being involved with this project and can't wait for the one in the fall to start! ****Candie****

Front cover is wrapped with a map of where we (myfamily) is from in Washington State

inside are blank pages to add all my Lincoln City memories

back cover is wrap with the map of Oregon, highlighting where we stay!

Navajo Tacos

Hey there! I must be in a cooking mood, cause I made another recipe from Chef in Training.  This time I made Navajo tacos.  When we have tacos, we normally don't get hard shell.  We usually just go for the flour tortillas.  But this recipe called for frying up the flour tortillas.  Man was it ever so good!

Here's the recipe:  (I doubled the recipe for my family)

4 flour tortillas 

1 lb ground beef

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 can re-fried beans

shredded lettuce

sour cream

salsa

avocados

shredded cheese

tomatoes (instead of salsa we used tomatoes)

1. Brown ground beef and drain.  Add 3/4 cup water and taco seasoning to ground beef.  Simmer for 10 minutes.

2. Fry tortillas until golden brown.

3. Top fried torilla with all your dressings

ENJOY! I sure did!  ****Candie****

No Bake Cookies

Hello all! We follow this amazing blog, that has amazing recipes!  Chef In Training has some pretty darn tasty recipes.  I have tried 2 myself and they both turned out fantastic.  The pot roast was super delish- sorry no picture, forgot to take a picture before we ate it, but it sure tasted good going down!  The other No Bake Cookies, well Nikki over at Chef In Training called them Gorilla Poop! Love it!

Anyway I would like to share this recipe with you.

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup margerine/butter
4 Tbs cocoa
2-1/2 cups quick oats
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter or nuttela

Cook sugar, milk, butter and cocoa over moderate heat until mixture come to a full rolling boil.  Once mixture is a full rolling boil, cook for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Add oats, canill, and peanut butter (nutella).  Mix untilo well blended.  Spoon onto waxed paper and let cool.

Hope you all enjoy!  ****Candie****

4th of July Decor

Hey ya'll!  Well it's that time of year to decorate for the 4th.  I usually don't do much decorating.  A few flags here and there, but that's about it.  This year I made this little decoration that I saw at Michael's the other day.  It turned out so stinkin' cute!

Michael's was having a Red, White and Blue 40% off sale.  So I thought wouldn't it be super cute to make some festive flip flops.  I've seen these a couple times while reading some of the blogs that we follow, but to my dismay I can't remember where.  So whoever I saw these from, the credit goes to you.

Lindsay came over this jolly morning and we went to town.

Here's the supplies we used:

Flip Flops - $1.00 each
Flowers - $1.29
Ribbon - $2.99 a roll, them 50% off!
Jewels - $2.99 not on sale :-(

Here's the finished product:

Mine have the flower on them, and Lindsay tied two different ribbons to them.  So darn stinkin' cute!

Can't wait to wear them for the 4th!

Hope ya'll have a HAPPY and SAFE 4th!

****Candie****

The Lansing Garden Part 2

A view posts back I blogged about the beginnings of my garden.  Not to be confused with "the Gray's garden" post, you can check out my 1st garden post here.

Anywho, I bought one of those raised garden kits.  Yes, only one. That's about all I will have time for this year.

So here they are not filled yet.  Tossed some potting soil in and planted all 9 of my plants.  Whoo hoo, yet just 9.  You can see the black tubing poking out from the ground cover.  I fixed that up, poked holes where I needed holes, and added a couple small sprayers.

As you can see, my garden is really small.  Most of the plants are some sort of tomato, but I do have one pepper in there.

This plant is doing the best. And hopefully soon we will have some tomatoes.

UPDATE:
Since it's been a couple of weeks since I planted these plants, it seems that only 3 survived the replanting process.  Darn it!  Oh well better luck next time.

Now I would like to share some of my roses with you from my garden.

 
Aren't they beauties!

Here's the fabulous hanging basket I got my local grocery store.  I think it's coming alone nicely!

Thanks for looking ****Candie****

Easy Homemade Bread Recipe

This is a really easy bread recipe. I am not a baker at all and baking is slightly terrifying to me.  I need the easiest recipes to even attempt to try it. Here is the recipe I used:

6 1/2 to 7 cups of flour 

2 pkgs of 1/4 oz Quick rise yeast 

3 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. salt

1 1/4 cups water

1 cup milk

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

In large mixing bowl, combine 3 cups flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix well. Combine water, milk, and oil. Heat to 120F to 130F. Add to flour mixture. Blend at low speed until moistened and then beat 3 minutes on medium speed. By hand, gradually stir in remaining flour to make firm dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and elastic. This should take about 5 to 8 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place. It should double in size in about 25 to 30 minutes. Punch down dough. Divide into 2 parts. On lightly floured surface roll each half to 14 x 7 rectangle. Starting shorter side, roll up tightly pressing dough into roll with each turn. Pinch edges and ends to seal. place in greased 9 x 5 bread pan. Cover and let rise for about 15 to 20 minutes. Bake at 400F for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool.

This was super easy to make. Believe me if I can make this you can make this.  ~~ Lindsay